Editing History of large numbers (section)

==Indian mathematics==
[[Image:HinduMeasurements.svg|thumb|right|Hindu units of time on a [[logarithmic scale]].]]
The [[Shukla Yajurveda]] has a list of names for powers of ten up to 10<sup>12</sup>.
The list given in the Yajurveda text is: 
:''eka'' (1), ''daśa'' (10), ''mesochi'' (100), ''sahasra'' (1,000), ''ayuta'' (10,000), ''niyuta'' (100,000), ''prayuta'' (1,000,000), ''arbuda'' (10,000,000), ''nyarbuda'' (100,000,000), ''saguran'' (1,000,000,000), ''madhya'' (10,000,000,000), ''anta'' (100,000,000,000), ''parârdha'' (1,000,000,000,000).<ref>Yajurveda Saṁhitâ, xvii. 2.</ref>
Later Hindu and Buddhist texts have extended this list,  but these lists are no longer mutually consistent and names of numbers larger than 10<sup>8</sup> differ between texts.

For example, the [[Panchavimsha Brahmana]] lists 10<sup>9</sup> as ''nikharva'', 10<sup>10</sup> ''vâdava'', 10<sup>11</sup> ''akṣiti'', while   [[Śâṅkhyâyana Śrauta Sûtra]] has 10<sup>9</sup> ''nikharva'', 10<sup>10</sup> ''samudra'', 10<sup>11</sup> ''salila'', 10<sup>12</sup>  ''antya'', 10<sup>13</sup> ''ananta''.  Such lists of names for powers of ten are called ''daśaguṇottarra saṁjñâ''. There area also analogous lists of Sanskrit names for fractional numbers, that is, powers of one tenth.

The [[Mahayana]]  ''[[Lalitavistara Sutra]]'' is notable for giving a very extensive such list, with terms going up to 10<sup>421</sup>. The context is an account of a contest including writing, arithmetic, wrestling and archery, in which the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] was pitted against the great mathematician Arjuna and showed off his numerical skills by citing the names of the powers of ten up to 1 'tallakshana', which equals 10<sup>53</sup>, but then going on to explain that this is just one of a series of counting systems that can be expanded geometrically.

The [[Avatamsaka Sutra|Avataṃsaka Sūtra]], a text associated with the [[Lokottaravāda]] school of Buddhism, has an even more extensive list of names for numbers, and it goes beyond listing mere powers of ten introducing concatenation of exponentiation,  the largest number mentioned being ''nirabhilapya nirabhilapya parivarta'' (Bukeshuo bukeshuo zhuan 不可說不可說轉), corresponding to <math>10^{7\times 2^{122}}</math>.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/language/largenumber.html |title=無量大数の彼方へ |access-date=2009-09-20 |archive-date=2018-10-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016023928/http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/language/largenumber.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.moroo.com/uzokusou/misc/suumei/suumei.html 大数の名前について]</ref> though chapter 30 (the Asamkyeyas) in Thomas Cleary's translation of it we find the definition of the number "untold" as exactly 10<sup>10*2<sup>122</sup></sup>, expanded in the 2nd verses to 10<sup>4*5*2<sup>121</sup></sup> and continuing a similar expansion indeterminately.
Examples for other names given in the Avatamsaka Sutra include: ''[[asaṃkhyeya]]'' (असंख्येय)  10<sup>140</sup>.

The [[Indian mathematics|Jain mathematical]] text Surya Prajnapti (c. 4th–3rd century BCE) classifies all numbers into three sets: [[enumerable]], innumerable, and infinite. Each of these was further subdivided into three orders:<ref>{{cite book|author=Ian Stewart|title=Infinity: a Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iewwDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA117|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-875523-4|page=117|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403200429/https://books.google.com/books?id=iewwDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA117|archive-date=April 3, 2017}}</ref> enumerable (lowest, intermediate, and highest), innumerable (nearly innumerable, truly innumerable, and innumerably innumerable), and infinite (nearly infinite, truly infinite, infinitely infinite).

In modern India, the terms [[lakh]] for 10<sup>5</sup> and [[crore]] for 10<sup>7</sup> are in common use. Both are vernacular (Hindustani) forms derived from a list of names for powers of ten in [[Yājñavalkya Smṛti]], where 10<sup>5</sup> and 10<sup>7</sup> named ''lakṣa'' and ''koṭi'', respectively.